Susan Boyle: I'd love to adopt a child so they can have everything I didn't when I was growing up
The Britain's Got Talent star has conquered the music world and now she wants to adopt a child to give them the best start in life
Singing sensation Susan Boyle will never forget the cruel taunts she suffered as a child.
Placed in a remedial class at school, she would weep as other children bullied her for a condition she only recently discovered was Asperger’s.
But 40 years on, and now worth more than £22million, Susan, 53, has come up with a way to help heal the hurt – she wants to adopt an underprivileged child and give them everything she never had.
In an announcement that will stun her fans across the globe, she reveals: “I have so much love to give, I have so much to give someone that I want to adopt.
“I want to adopt a child who doesn’t have much, someone who I can really give something to. It’s a way of giving back for me.
“I have been considering it for about a year now, I love children, I always have but I couldn’t have them.
“I want to give a youngster what I didn’t have, and now I can do that.”
And it’s not just a throwaway comment or a publicity stunt. Privately Susan has been in contact with social services and has set the adoption process in motion.
In an exclusive interview on the American leg of her world tour she tells me: “For the last couple of weeks it has got serious, I hope that they see what I can give. I know I’m not married and I’m over 50 but I am waiting to see.
“I know it is all a long process but I’ve never been more keen to do it. The rules can be quite strict but let’s hope.
“We’ll have to see what social services say but it would make me so happy.”
Susan, who grew up in Blackburn, Scotland, was unable to have her own children, but adores her nieces and nephews and loves larking about with friends’ grandchildren.
She has been inspired after seeing a relative transform the life of a fostered youngster. She says. “It is lovely, so rewarding, you see these children’s lives change.
“I do know that I’m single and 50-odd. People don’t think I’m being serious when I say it, they have a giggle at me. Let’s see.”
Until her first night in San Diego, Susan had never performed a concert in the States but she’s clearly enjoying her time on the road.
She proudly invited me to join her on her lavish tour bus for the afternoon before she performed to a sell-out crowd in the Californian town of Costa Mesa.
Spending just a few hours with her, it’s clear to me that her reputation, the way she has been labelled for so many years, is way off the mark.
There was no certainly no hint of any diva behaviour. She is, in fact, a lovely combination of emotional, funny, serious, warm, and jolly good company.
But it’s obvious that living as Ms Boyle hasn’t been particularly easy.
She always knew she was different and was misdiagnosed until just two years ago. After finally being told she suffered from Asperger’s, she was able to deal with her condition.
No walk in the park when you’re also adjusting from being an anonymous woman living with her beloved cat Pebbles in a council house in Blackburn, West Lothian to becoming an overnight star.
Within days of her moving audition on ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent being aired, America became obsessed with Susan.
In what she herself describes as a “rags to riches story” her life transformed very, very quickly. She now certainly has a few more zero’s on her bank balance, but they came at a price.
The world wanted to know if she was a virgin, or even had she ever been kissed. There was also a nasty family rift, though Susan, devastated at the falling out, doesn’t want to talk about it.
Not easy for anyone, never mind a vulnerable woman unknowingly suffering from a form of autism.
“It’s hard but having Asperger’s doesn’t mean I can’t get on with a normal life,” she says, though she adds “the music industry” still doesn’t understand it.
“Any change in life, so quickly, is stressful because one minute you’re at home with your cat and the next you’re away with all of the camera people.
“Now I’m getting used to it, I have to get used to the touring side,” she says.
After spending her whole life struggling, finally she was able to understand why she was at times disruptive and unpredictable.
Tears begin to appear in her eyes as she confesses to the battle she’s endured. Brave enough to seek the right help, Susan has been on some journey and she is clearly very proud of herself.
“I was on medication,” she says, taking a large breath. “I had to take it to start with but I didn’t want to any more so I learned some coping mechanisms, I went to speak to expert.
“I don’t like to use the word therapy but I went to see people to get help, you get help and you gradually get there. I’m getting there slowly, I would say.
With searing honestly, she admits: “It’s bloody difficult sometimes, and sometimes there is trouble.”
Susan is desperate to help people with mental health issues shake off the stigma they suffer.
She hopes to become something of a role model. She says: “When you’re in the public eye, or even if you’re not, if you’re different, you’re given a label. But when people understand, the label comes off. I want to peel those labels off. We’ve made changes but the culture is still there.”
Susan’s desire to help others doesn’t stop there.
She’s involved with a special needs Olympics group in Livingston, near her home, and hopes to be at the world games next year in Los Angeles.
She also recently donated a substantial sum of money to build a sensory garden “so people there can benefit from looking at something beautiful”.
You see, Susan is still just normal. Normal as in the fame hasn’t affected her.
She still lives in the two-bedroom terrace house she grew up in, though she has bought the one next door. She also has what she refers to as the “posh home” that she rents out to her niece.
Susan isn’t flash, she shops in M&S and is disappointed her fame means she has to have someone do her weekly shop.
For a recent holiday she shunned the Maldives and went to Benidorm.
Her one blow out is a splurge in New York’s Bloomingdales store once a year. But money is not important to her.
She says: “I love the singing, it was my dream to do this and it happened for me. But I will semi-retire and I want to train as a drama teacher to help those with special needs.
“I want to give back to the community, I want to get young people off the streets and into doing worthwhile things, nothing would make me happier.”
For now though, Susan is rather busy. She will be on tour for part of next year – Australia next – and she releases her sixth album, Hope, next month.
To lighten the mood, single Susan switches the subject to her heart-throb – Sir Terry Wogan.
She giggles: “I loved his accent, oh I really fancied him, ever since I was a young teenager.”
She suddenly bursts into a Northern Irish accent that would have even impressed Sir Tel.
Others who’ve taken her fancy include singer Paolo Nutini and DJ David Guetta. “Oooh, I like the younger men,” she laughs. “And for those of you who think I’ve never been kissed, well I have.”
Clearly, there’s a lot we didn’t know about SuBo.
*Sixth album Hope is out in the UK on November 24 2014 and is available to pre-order on Amazon.co.uk
Posted in the Mirror - For videos, click on link:
http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/susan-boyle-id-love-adopt-4463127
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